


Honmei Choco

by SoundScribe



Category: Naruto
Genre: Baby Sannin, Crushes, Fluff, Kid Fic, Other, Slice of Life, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22626151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoundScribe/pseuds/SoundScribe
Summary: It's the 14th of February in Konoha and eleven year old Orochimaru needs some advice from Tsunade about a mysterious present he's been given. What's with all the chocolate?!Conversational valentines fluff with Kid!Sannin. Unspoken OroTsu (and faintly implied JiraOroTsu) feelings
Relationships: Jiraiya/Orochimaru/Tsunade (Naruto), Orochimaru/Tsunade (Naruto)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	Honmei Choco

The gift was covered in a cheerfully printed cotton and sitting on the step above the genkan. Orochimaru tilted his head, looking at it with a critical, unblinking stare. This was out of the ordinary. Carefully, the eleven year old crouched next to it, looking for abnormalities that might suggest danger. He gave it a few experimental pokes with a kunai. When the parcel didn’t explode he tried picking it up, dislodging a little slip of paper with it. The paper didn’t have much on it. There was his name, a very carefully drawn heart in pink, and a tiny message written underneath. ‘‘I like you.’

Love letters were not a foreign concept to Orochimaru. A certain boy he knew talked about them often, bragging about sending and receiving them all the time. A tiny blush crept across his cheeks. Upon closer inspection, the handwriting didn’t look anything like Jiraiya’s crayon scrawl. Far too easy to read. His sharp, serpentine pupils flicked from note to parcel. If this was a trap it was a weird one.

Untying the knot needed to be done slowly. You never knew when a surprise paper bomb or concealed blade would be lurking in secret. Gently, the pretty fabric was undone and the lid of the box inside was lifted. Orochimaru’s imagination gave him all sorts of possibilities. Spring loaded shuriken? A summon animal waiting to strike? A severed hand? What could possibly be…

Chocolate.

Inside the box was a small cluster of sweets, each decorated differently. They weren’t very big and looked handmade. The drizzle on top was smudged on some of them, like they’d been put into the box before they’d set completely. Orochimaru cautiously sniffed the air, his tongue peeking out as he concentrated. ‘Probably not poison.’ he thought, only picking up the smell of sugar and cocoa. Even so, he didn’t touch them. Instead, he replaced the lid and began to re-wrap the gift up. This was a matter that needed advice.

Jiraiya and Tsunade would know more. Placing the little bundle into a basket with the note on top, Orochimaru set out to find them.  Konoha was busy and surprisingly warm today. He weaved through the bustling streets, checking in to the usual haunts. As he passed the tea shop someone called out to him.  "Hey! Orochimaru-kun, over here," he perked up in surprise. She wasn't one of his teammates. It was a girl he somewhat remembered from the classroom. 

"Oh," he said back, "Yamanaka...san?"

"Still weird and formal, huh?" she laughed, sweeping her clan-styled ponytail back. "It's okay to call me Inori, you know! Anyway here, I want to give you this," holding out her hands, Orochimaru hadn't expected to see a wrapped gift, much like the one in the basket although this one was much neater. Like an adult had wrapped it for her. Inori wiggled the package until he took it from her. "It's just giri-choco so it isn't special but I hope you enjoy it."

"Giri… choco?" Orochimaru repeated quietly, staring down at it with wide, questioning eyes.

"Yep! See ya around!" She didn't leave room for Orochimaru to respond before she waved goodbye and went back to her table in the tea shop. Left standing at the entrance, the young serpent watched her go before delicately placing the present in his basket with the other.

Now he had even more to ask his friends.

The village was full of interesting things today. Inori had been the first he’d seen but there were plenty of others that seemed to know what was happening. Gift bags were more common than usual in his eyeline. He ran into another girl from his class not long after the tea shop and he was handed yet another small present. This one also didn’t explain anything before she disappeared and Orochimaru was left more curious than ever. 

A little further down he spotted more girls from their schooling. These were standing huddled in a group and one of them pointed to him. She said something he couldn’t hear to another, who looked around at him and very quickly shook her head, turning away. The rest of the girls burst into giggles. Orochimaru kept moving. Whatever they were talking about was no concern of his.

It was past noon before he finally found a familiar ponytail. He caught Tsunade’s arm through a narrow gap in the crowd and they escaped towards the park for a little space to talk. She was alone today, meaning Jiraiya would have to be hunted down later. But he could deal with that. Tsunade’s counsel was more likely to be useful for a start.

You look like you’ve been busy,” She said with a smile, “Your hair’s all over the place.” Orochimaru sighed quietly and smoothed a lock down behind his ear. “There’s a lot of people out today. It was hard to find you.” He said quietly. Tsunade nodded. “Yeah. It’s really nice isn’t it, though? I think everyone’s really enjoying Valentine's day.”

“Valentine’s day?”

This was a word that Orochimaru had never heard before. He was clever and he had learned all sorts of things, but this was new. Tsunade must have picked up on the confusion from his expression because she raised a tiny eyebrow at him. “Don’t you know? After all,” She said, gesturing at his basket, “you’ve obviously been getting the chocolate all day.” This only received a blank look and she sighed, shaking her head at him. “Honestly, you’re unbelievable. I thought you knew everything.” Orochimaru’s face twisted with a pink flush over his cheeks. Tsunade couldn’t help but soften up a little. She was only teasing him. “C’mon,” She said with a light touch on his back, “let’s go sit somewhere and I’ll tell you all about it.”

While not the most precious over being feminine, the Senju princess was still very fashionable in that way. She knew things about people and what sorts of things they think about. Orochimaru was glad. He could trust her to explain things like this. They found a quiet spot on a grassy bank. The trees swished peacefully in the background as they settled down. The fresh February air was pleasant.

Tsunade explained about Valentine’s Day. It was a special new day, that had been brought to the Land of Fire, where girls could confess to their crush and tend good relationships with their friends and co-workers. Orochimaru listened carefully, starting to understand why his morning had been so strange. “So,” he started hesitantly, “if you get chocolate that means you mean something to them?” Tsunade shook her head in response. “Not exactly. There’s a difference. There’s honmei-choco which is the special one you only use for the one you like. Giri-choco is the other kind. That goes to just normal boys that you know but it can mean lots of things.” 

Orochimaru pondered this for a minute, fidgeting with the contents of his basket. “Inori said it was giri-choco. And this other one I was given looks about the same but she didn’t really say anything.”

“Inori?” Tsunade looked a little surprised. “Huh, I was sure she…” She trailed off when she met Orochimaru’s intense eyes, “Nevermind.” She said with an encouraging smile, “Inori’s nice, I think she meant good things. I couldn’t say for the other one though, she could have been giving them to everyone.”

She always found it difficult to read Orochimaru when he was thinking so deeply about something. She knew he wasn’t really interested in things like romance, and she had never seen him express any interest in their peers aside from herself and Jiraiya, but he was definitely thinking about something right now. His gaze kept coming back to the basket. Tsunade stifled a smile. He really was different compared to all of the other boys from their year. But she knew that already. She liked that about him.

“Do the girls get anything today?” He asked suddenly, looking concerned. Tsunade shook her head. “No, not yet. We have to wait until White Day next month. But the boys can give us more than just chocolate if they want.” She explained. Orochimaru went quiet again. Something was bothering him. There was a long pause before he finally spoke.

"So... only girls can give chocolate but only to boys, today. And boys have to do it but only to girls later? That doesn't seem fair."

Tsunade looked like she was about to say something but she paused and reconsidered with a thoughtful glance at Orochimaru.

"No, it doesn't," she said, "you're right."

The children sat quietly together for some time, the spring breeze threatening to chill their ankles as it rustled the grass around them. "Also," Tsunade said, breaking the silence with a meaningful look, "they say homemade is best for the person you like."

"Really?" 

"Yeah." She smiled warmly, meeting the glimmer of interest in those big golden eyes, "if you want that person to know how you feel, you have to put that into the chocolate. It'll taste better and they'll remember it was yours." 

Orochimaru looked down at the basket sitting next to him. 

"Tsunade… "

"Yes?"

He looked pensive, his little brow furrowed in thought. "Do you know how to make chocolate?”

Tsunade nodded, “Yeah. I do.” 

Orochimaru closed his eyes and said nothing, but Tsunade couldn’t help noticing that he was smiling too. She softly moved her hand onto his.

“I’ll teach you if you like. There’s still enough time before Valentine’s finishes.”

The tiny smirk widened, a rare, sweet grin that she only ever saw him make amongst the privacy of the three of them.

“And…” She added, “I guess I should make _him_ something too… But you’d both better pay me back **triple** on White Day!”

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, this is the first fic I've written in a really long time but I wanted to do something cute for Valentines so thank you for reading it even though I'm rusty! I hope you liked it!
> 
> I had in mind that these kids are still a little young to have names for things so there's a lot of vagueness around how things are being processed by them. Particularly Oro picking up on the girls > boys/boys > girls rules.
> 
> In the end it's just best when everyone gets a present, right?
> 
> (Oh and the Yamanaka girl isn't an OC or a canon, I just thought it would be nice to have more than just the Sannin in their generation so I tossed her in :p)


End file.
